innovAGEING and Alive deliver Australia’s first Aged Care Nudgeathon

Sydney, NSW: Digital design and technology company, ALIVE (part of the Mirus Group), and national aged care innovation network innovAGEING, teamed up with University of Technology Sydney UTS Innovation & Entrepreneurship Unit to run a day-long nudgeathon with the aged care industry at UTS Startups.

The organisations joined forces to bring together their respective networks in aged care, innovation, design, and entrepreneurship, to collaborate on brainstorming behavioural changes that need to occur in the industry, and design solutions that could “nudge” these changes.

“This first nudgeathon saw participants unanimously agreeing that the focus directive for this event was to roll their sleeves up and get creative in designing initiatives that create a positive impact”, says Merlin Kong, Principal Adviser for innovAGEING.

“Through the course of this nudgeathon, the team collaborations uncovered some interesting behavioural insights. For example, how perceived notions of scarcity can either lead to increased focus, or a tunnelling of objectives, or how notions of altruism led to expectations on staff delivering services.

“Acting on these insights with a design thinking lens led to some really great ideas that were realistic and scalable.

“We’re thrilled to be working with our Gold Partner, ALIVE, on innovative initiatives like today’s nudgeathon, and thank Marketing Consultant, Anthony Carroll, for facilitating today’s event with his team. It takes an intellectually nimble organisation to deliver today’s event, bringing together nudge theory, design thinking, aged care, entrepreneurship, and technology.

“We see aged care innovation no differently to any other innovation endeavour. UTS’ support for today’s event provides invaluable links to the broader innovation and entrepreneurship community. It was inspiring to see university students so interested in aged care, and there is no better place to hold a nudgeathon like this than at UTS Startups.

“Everyone was a winner today, and our industry is better for it,” Mr Kong said.